Camp

A Lambda Award Finalist, A Today Show Best Book, A Forbes Best Book, and an ALA Rainbow List Top Ten selectionSet in a summer camp, this sweet and sharp screwball comedy set in a summer camp for queer teens examines the nature of toxic masculinity and self-acceptance.

Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It’s where he met his best friends. It’s where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it’s where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim—who’s only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.

This year, however, it’s going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as ‘Del’—buff, masculine, and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he’s determined to get Hudson to fall for him.

But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself: How much is he willing to change for love? And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn’t know who he truly is?

• Praise for Camp:
  
  Lambda Award Finalist for Best YA Novel
  A Today Show Best Book of 2020
  A Forbes Best Book of 2020
  A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020
  A Booklist Editor’s Choice Books for Youth 2020
  An Elle Best Book of 2020
  ALA Rainbow List Top Ten
  Alma’s Best YA novel of the Year
  A Bookcrushin Favorite Book of 2020
  A United by Pop Best YA of 2020
  An Overdrive Best Book of 2020
    "Packed with an amazing cast of unforgettable characters, Camp is the perfect read for anyone wondering if they're too much or not enough of their true self. It's the must-read book of the summer."
  Julian Winters, award-winning author of Running With Lions
• "A powerful, yet nuanced, illustration of every queer person's struggle with identity, presented in Rosen's trademark blend of levity and wit. Charming and clever, this story simply sparkles."
  Phil Stamper, author of The Gravity of Us
• "Camp has everything you're looking for: A winning romance, a celebration of queerness, a reflection on what it takes to embrace your most authentic self, and answers to questions most queer boys often don't know how to ask in the first place."
  Caleb Roerhig, author of Death Prefers Blondes
• Camp is a pitch-perfect, joyfully queer take on the classic summer camp sex romp. With a loveable lead and a fabulous cast of supporting characters, it's the sweetest YA romance I've read in a long time.
  Tom Ryan, author of Keep This to Yourself
• "The gay summer camp romp of my dreams: a romantic summertime joyride and a thoughtful examination of gay culture. Gay teens or anyone who knows a gay teen should read this book."
  Cale Dietrich, Author of The Love Interest
• "Camp is a divine treat. A subversive explosion of masc/fem stereotypes wrapped inside a sparkly, funny, heartstring-plucking romance. At once delightfully cynical and buoyantly hopeful, Rosen uses Camp to take aim at everything the LGBTQ community is currently wrestling with and needs to hear."
  Adam Sass, author of Surrender Your Sons
• "Joyful, exuberant, incisive, and terrifically queer. CAMP is a romcom with bite and heart, one that examines the walls we build around ourselves-and promises us we have the power to tear them down. This is literary wizardry."
  Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great is Not Okay
• "Gloriously gay ... Highly anticipated"
  NewNowNext
• "This novel has the appeal of a rom-com movie-makeover but with more substantive explorations of self-betrayal, self-evaluation, and eventual awakening. Secondary characters are ethnically diverse; Hudson is Korean and Ukrainian. A drag act that plays with compassion and camp."
  Kirkus
• *"An essential pick for teens figuring out who and how to love."
  Booklist, starred review
• "...as inventive, cute, and glittery as its arts and crafts-centric cover. In this masterful mix of rom-com hijinks, theater references, queer history, and gender theory, Rosen plays with tropes and expectations in a way that will absolutely delight you."
  Elle.com
• "...successfully captures the fleeting feelings of first love and explores identity..."
  Shelf Awareness